John Tatsey

The earliest Tatsey in the 1907-1908 “Blackfeet Heritage” genealogy book is Joseph Tatsey, at that time 43 years old. He was half-Blood (Canadian Blackfeet), a quarter Piegan. His father was a full-blood named “Not Real Good” or “Man of Massacre.” His mother was Susan Tatsey who took her allotment under the name of Susan Campbell. She was half Piegan through her mother. Her father was John Libby.

“Not Real Good” had a full sister named “Medicine Snake,” whom we know as Natawista. She is the heroine of several novels and was married to Alexander Culbertson, the fur-trader. At the point of this census, she is the widow of her second husband, Roberts, and lives in Cincinnati, while Culbertson lives in Fort Peck. She was exceptionally intelligent and beautiful so we can probably assume that her nephew, Joseph Tatsey, was similiarly endowed.

Joseph Tatsey’s sister was Louise, who married Robert Tingley. She is a half-sister, as her father is John Campbell.

Joseph Tatsey’s wife was Annie, 37 years old, half Piegan. They were married March 2, 1889, by “the” priest. Her father was “Pete,” a Frenchman raised by Louis Langley. Her mother was “Always Singing,” full Piegan. Annie’s half brother was Double Blaze Jackson (They shared “Always Singing” as mother.) Her half-sister was Louise Many Kills, wife of Charles Chouquette.

The children of Joseph Tatsey are:
Josephine, born March 29, 1890, at home.
Hattie Tatsey, born July 4, 1892, at the Mission.
John Tatsey, born January 26, 1894, at the Mission.
Joseph Tatsey, born June 6, 1986, at the Mission.
Elizabeth Tatsey, born July 24, 1899, at the Mission.
David Tatsey, born October 9, 1901, at home.
Irving Tatsey, born January 8, 1904, at home.
Mary Tatsey, born March 19, 1906, at home.
George Tatsey, born March 22, 1908.

The family lived on a ranch on Birch Creek, the southern boundary of the reservation. They have about a square mile under fence, but they are outside of the government fence.

Notice that there are some pretty important people on this list. If you made a list of Tatseys in today’s Blackfeet Reservation phone book, you would also come up with some pretty important people. But the one that everyone knows about was John Tatsey, who served the Heart Butte community as a policeman for decades and also wrote a column about the doin’s in that little foothill village for the Glacier Reporter.

John’s Indian name was supposed to be “Black Moccasin” so that was the title given to the paperback compilation of his columns that Paul T. DeVore made, illustrated by Albert Racine, with a foreword by Mike Mansfield, who occasionally read some of Tatsey’s columns into the Congressional Record. Mansfield says, “I especially treasure the writing of my old friend John Tatsey. His colorful accounts carry with them the true flavor of his time and place. The epic doings of Stoles Head Carrier and Tom Lame Bear assure me that no matter what becomes of the Federal budget or all of the problems of war and peace, life goes on at Heart Butte with all its everyday pleasures and follies and complications -- and above all, with the wry humor which the eyes of John Tatsey behold.

“Not long ago on the floor of the United States Senate, I had occasion to refer to John Tatsey as a modern day Will Rogers. So he is. For like Will Rogers, he reduces his observations to earthy commentaries that have a ring of truth for everyone. He pokes fun at life in general and makes us all chuckle a bit at our own absurdities. We are all better off for it.”

Actually, John’s father’s Indian name was “Weasel Necklace,” and John claimed that name himself. John’s only education was at a mission school. As a young man, he did farm work and in his early twenties operated a freighting business with horses. When machines replaced horses, he started a cattle ranch. In 1918 he married Belle Alveraz Racine, half-Sioux, whose maternal grandfather was a brother to Sitting Bull. Her father was a Spaniard and served as a cook on the steamboats that went up and down the Missouri between St. Louis and Fort Benton. The couple had two sons and a daughter. The older son was killed in the South Pacific during WWII. The pair also raised seven of Belle’s children by a former marriage.

Tatsey’s columns came out of his vocation as the tribal policeman in Heart Butte, a tiny village near the Rockies where old ways held on in spite of drunkenness and violence. His columns note a mixture of the two, more like Steinbeck’s “Tortilla Flats” than Will Rogers, if you ask me.

See what you think:

“Levi Aims Back was picked up Sunday night back of Geo. Wippert’s place where he was hung up by one leg on a barbed wire fence. More fences would help the police.”

“Stoles Head Carrier was put up in city jail Sunday night. The boys inside were watching Stoles being searched and nothing much. He picked a pint from the overlap of his belly.”

“There are some women around with patched faces and some colored. That’s because their husbands love them so much. That’s the way Indian makes love. He beats heck out of his wife.”

“The police force have no mercy. Last weekend the Heart Butte trapper went to town in his trapping clothes, gum boots, and late Saturday evening was wading down the main stream in Browning looking for beaver signs. When the paddy wagon came by and took him for no trapper permit. Something was wrong -- he did not know where he was till Monday morning before Judge Scriver.”

“Perry Spotted Eagle, the changeable man, something got into his mind and he went to church last Sunday. That was a good turn he made.”

“Tuesday Heart Butte school put on a party for the basketball team where they served a very nice lunch for the boys and parents and teachers. Mr. LaRue, teacher and coach, gave out the awards to the boys. Rev. Father Steinmetz from Valier made a very nice talk on sports and other games which the boys play. Heart Butte boys were sure interested. They heard some things they will keep in their minds.”